11/22/2010 @ 6:00AM

How To Use A Financial Adviser

Like most financial advisers Meg Green isn’t keen on losing clients, but that hasn’t stopped her from firing a few. Earlier this year Green noticed that a longtime client of her independent Miami, Fla. practice had become increasingly nasty toward her employees.

“I called her after her latest tirade and told her she didn’t seem happy here and that she’s always grumpy when she calls,” recounts Green. “I told her she had to move her accounts by Labor Day.”

You don’t hear a lot about financial advisers jettisoning clients, for good reason. In a business where advisers compete fiercely for business and rely on commissions and fees to make a living, showing a customer the door is often tantamount to voluntarily taking a pay cut. Even so, with a growing number of investors seeking advice from wirehouses like
Bank of America
Merrill Lynch and
UBS
, and from independent shops like Green’s, it’s natural that client-adviser conflicts are growing.

“You really get to know people when you’re handling their money,” quips one adviser.

Often the decision to show a client the door comes down to money–or the lack of it. Schwab Advisor Services, which has $610 billion in custody for more than 6,000 independent advisers, estimates that the 9% of client accounts worth $5 million or more generate 43% of advisers’ revenues. Another 59% of accounts have less than $1 million but drive just 18% of revenues.

As advisers themselves become more prosperous, many stop catering to the small fry. As Green’s case shows, however, advisers have other reasons for canning clients.

Nothing says you have to work with an adviser in the first place. But if you’re going to pay for hand-holding, it’s a good idea to pick your adviser carefully and make sure the person is experienced, honest and personally a good fit. Make sure your statements add up and your assets are independently custodied. Beyond that, it makes no more sense to pick someone you’re going to abuse, ignore or constantly second-guess than it would to treat your doctor the same way. Following are a few adviser stories about clients from hell, with pointers for getting the most out of your money-guru relationship.

Trust or Take a Hike

Dorie Rosenband is an adviser of 13 years. One of her larger accounts belonged to a woman who constantly questioned Rosenband’s intentions. Rosenband says she would give the client abundant research to back up her recommendations, but the woman was still endlessly argumentative. The mistrust went beyond investment advice to even questioning mailings.

“Isn’t this the most frustrating relationship you’ve ever had?” Rosenband says she eventually asked the client. “She said, ‘Yes,’ and I helped her move her account to another broker.”

In another instance Rosenband was approached by a client who was thinking of leaving his broker to join her. When she asked for account statements, the man said he didn’t trust the U.S. Postal Service or the messenger she offered to send over.

“I decided pretty quickly I wouldn’t keep him as a client,” Rosenband says.

Suppose you’re a busy young professional with a $1 million investment portfolio but little time to manage it. If you decide to hire an adviser and pay a fairly standard 1% of assets annually for his services, that’s $10,000 per year. At that price, if you’re suspicious of your adviser’s every move you’re probably wasting your money.

Take the Long View

William Spiropoulos, president and chief executive of Core States Capital Advisors in Newtown, Pa., had a client with a chronic case of the jitters. The elderly man had been through the Great Depression and the 1987 crash and seemed haunted by fears that he’d lose everything. Spiropoulos tried to calm his nerves by putting about three-quarters of his more than $1 million in assets into a conservative mix of bonds. Even that didn’t help.

“He’d call the office in a panic about his losses and say to the receptionist, ‘You’re a nice girl to talk to on a Friday night, but I need Bill right now,’” Spiropoulos recalls.

The adviser did his best to soothe his client’s fears but never really succeeded. Eventually the client passed away a wealthy man.

If you’re going to put your financial future in someone else’s hands, it doesn’t make sense to then sweat the market’s every tick (nor would it if you decided to manage your own money). Instead, give your adviser breathing room to make the decisions you’re paying him or her to make.

Let the Pros Decide

During the tech bubble a decade ago Miami adviser Green had a formerly conservative client she refers to as an “investing wuss” who suddenly told her he’d gotten tech religion and wanted to invest his pension assets in
Microsoft
,
Intel
and
Cisco
. Green thought the market was “toppy” and the stocks unsuitable for his account. When the man insisted, Green asked him to take the business elsewhere.

“He took one-third of the pension I’d managed and moved it,” Green says. “It took him six years to recover that money.”

Last year another client came to Green saying she’d just bought a big new condo before unloading her existing home. This time Green vehemently insisted the client was running the risk of getting stuck with two illiquid properties and putting herself in serious financial peril. This time the client heeded Green’s advice and rescinded the purchase.

One advantage of using a good adviser is that he or she will establish a sensible asset allocation and then stick to it in good times and bad. Such discipline tends to pay off over time. If you want to make the decisions yourself, why pay someone else to do it, too?

Remember: It’s a Business

No question, your adviser should be reachable and responsive. He should patiently explain what he’s doing with your money and answer your questions about why.

It’s important to bear in mind, however, that advisers have businesses to run in which time is money. Green recalls how the client she ultimately fired visited every day and used the office as if it were her own, “smelly dog” in tow. The sort of behavior that a young, hungry adviser will tolerate might not go over so well with someone who’s more established–and busy.

J. Scott Slater, managing director of business consulting for
Charles Schwab
, notes that it doesn’t make financial sense for senior partners to spend too much time on small accounts.

“When advisers start building their books . . . they’ll take anyone who walks and breathes,” says Dan Inveen, a principal at adviser consulting firm FA Insight in Seattle, Wash. “Eventually the practice matures and some of those clients are no longer a good fit.”

If you find that your longtime adviser seems to have outgrown your relationship, it might be best for you to consider making a change. After all, your adviser might be reluctant to devote much time to you if your relationship has become a moneyloser.

“No one wants to feel like they’re firing the first client who ever trusted them,” Inveen says.